134 [CHAP, xi 



CHAPTER XI 



18191823 



Emma Allen at Maer Fanny and Emma Wedgwood A gigantic 

 cheese Kaces and Race-Balls A singing party at the Mount, 

 Shrewsbury Dr Darwin and his daughters Fanny and Emma 

 at school in London Sunday-school at Maer The Sismondia 

 at Geneva. 



IN 1819 the Wedgwoods left Etruria, and from now onwards 

 lived at Maer. Whilst the house was being painted the 

 family went to Cresselly, leaving Fanny and Emma, then 

 13 and 11 years old, under the charge of their aunt Emma 

 Allen at Maer. 



Emma Allen to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



MAER HALL, Nov. 15th, 1819. 



. . . Emma says you are all so good about writing from 

 Cresselly, that she thinks once a week will not be good 

 enough for us to reply to you. In compliance with her 

 opinion I advance my time for writing to you. . . . Now 

 for an account of the home department, which is just as 

 flourishing as it can be. I marvel at the strength of the 

 girls' spirits as much as I do at the perfection of their 

 tempers. I feel now very sure that not only not a cross word 

 ever passes between them, but that an irritable feeling never 

 arises. Fanny, to be sure, is calmness itself, but the vivacity 

 of Emma's feelings, without perfectly knowing her, would 

 make me expect that Fanny's reproofs, which she often 

 gives with an elder sister air, would ruffle her a little; but 

 I Lave never seen that expressive face take the shadow of 



